All Things to All People

A young man was at a party when he began talking to a very pretty young woman. After talking a while, he said to her, “So, tell me, what kind of man do you like?” She responded, “Well, I like native American men because they are so strong. And, I like Jewish men because of the way they put women on a pedestal. And, I like Southern men because of their courtesy.”

After she had completed her response, the young woman asked the young man, “And what is your name?” The young man said, “My name is Geronimo Goldstein, but all of my friends just call me Bubba.”

That young man may have been onto something. Paul told the Corinthians, “I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some” (1 Cor. 9:22). And yet, Paul was not trying to manipulate people. He was not just telling people what they wanted to hear. Paul was genuinely interested in people and wanted to see them come to know Christ as Savior.

The people in Paul’s world came from many different backgrounds. Some were Jews; others were Gentiles. Some were weak, and some were strong. He wanted to build genuine bridges of friendship to all of them so that he could walk across those bridges bearing life’s most sacred cargo—the gift of salvation.

Reaching out to people from diverse backgrounds, people with different personalities and different cultures, requires patience and persistence. More than that it requires genuine love.

The title of Dale Carnegie’s classic book is How to Win Friends and Influence People. The thrust of our faith is not how to win friends but how to be a friend to people around us—to be genuinely concerned about them.

Our greatest model for this is Jesus Christ. In order to win man to God, Jesus became a man. “The Word was made flesh and dwelled among us” (John 1:14). Nothing was more effective. Jesus bridged the gap between God and man. He came so close to us that we could see. You need to incarnate His love to people around you.

I read of a teenager who was stricken with cancer and had to undergo chemotherapy. As a result of the chemotherapy, his hair came out. He was terribly embarrassed by this and did not want to see any of his friends. But his friends would not stay away. One day five of his closest buddies came to visit with him. But before they arrived, they all had their heads completely shaved. When they walked into the room, they looked just like their friend who had lost all of his hair.

You have been called to reach out and share with people all around you. You may not change your name to “Geronimo ‘Bubba’ Goldstein,” but, in the words of Paul, you can “become all things to all men so that by all possible means you might save some.”